Car and Driver recently published an article and photo series about what might happen if GM buys Chrysler - and the vehicles that will result from it:

If you stand back and look at it—no, stand back farther than that, right next to the edge of the cliff—this proposed merger of Chrysler LLC and General Motors, on one level, seems like a splendid idea: Dump half the dealers, half the employees, half the products, and use this supposed $11 billion in cash that Chrysler has sitting around to shore up what is left: the brightest dealers, employees, and products.

Right? Right!

Unfortunately, the only people who could write that scenario with a happy ending for all concerned are Walt Disney and Dr. Seuss, and they don’t seem to be taking on any new assignments.

Which leaves us to help you sort this out. And we at Car and Driver are, of course, public-spirited good citizens, so you can thank us later.

Be sure to check all all the photos to catch their take on the 2010 Cherokee and 2010 Gladiator.

Remember, these are Car and Driver Photoshops, not GM or Chrysler concepts...

If a merger did occur, I don't think GM would engineer out the Wrangler platform in favor of the H3 platform, on the contrary, I think at least the H2 is on it's way out, and the H3 can only benefit from Jeep engineering.

IF a merger does occur, I think the Wrangler Unlimited and the H3 would be the benchmark of "large" SUV's powered by a V-6 or small Diesel V-8 (read 4.5L Duramax). SUV's like the Durango, and Suburban would go the way of the Dinosaur.

GM is already working in the 8 passenger car-based SUV's like the Saturn Outlook.

Remember the SUV Craze started with the Jeep Cherokee XJ and it only got larger, to the point of insanity. I have always considered an SUV to be a Cherokee, or Grand Cherokee at the largest.

I do agree though, Jeep should be it's own company, then we would get the JK and JK Unlimited, the JT, the J8, the Scrambler, the Liberty, and the Grand Cherokee, Just what we need.

I would rather some rich person/group of people would buy off the Jeep brand and create a new company called Willys Overland. Build the Wrangler, Wrangler Unlimited, Wrangler JT, Gladiator, and a stripped down, more off-roadable Patriot under the Jeep brand. Build a luxurious but very off-road capable Liberty, Commander, and Grand Cherokee and a limited production retro-designed car called the Aero Ace under the Overland brand.

Car and Driver should stick to writing because they aren't good at photochopping and they're not good at vehicle design.

Slap a Jeep grille on a Hummer? Yeah, that'll make it a Jeep ... NOT!

How about take the H3T idea of four doors and a bed and adapt the Wrangler platform to that? That would be less ugly, less heavy, less fuel intensive, less ugly, and dare I forget to mention, less ugly. Plus the expanded Wrangler lineup would provide a platform for small pickups and SUVs for GM-Chrysler's other brands if they really have to be body-engineered. Get the engineering right for the Wrangler and a number of dern decent vehicle could be based on the same platform. Don't mess with the Wrangler formula...much.... Even that Jeep EV concept is the same platform with a different, and torquier drivetrain -drool-. Using the Colorodo/Canyon/H3 platform as the basis of the next Wrangler or anything ostensibly "Jeep" would kill the "Jeep" name.